East German movies

I've found a website that sells old East German films (The Legend of Paul and Paula, The Rabbit Is Me etc) Could somone recommend any titles I should look out for? They all seem to be subtitled, which is good.

Though its an movie made after the fall, GoodBye Lenin is funny as hell, and above all very interesting. If you pay attention, you can see a lot of good stuff about the DDR. It's a german movie, wich was VERY succesfull in Europe.

Synopsis:Sonja and Jens truly love each other. Their wedding and subsequent married life is heaven on earth in their eyes - especially because they already own a flat and a baby will soon complete their happiness. But then Sonja realizes that being a housewife and mother does not fulfill her. She misses her job and colleagues and would like to work again. Jens is entirely opposed to this idea. Having been deprived of a harmonious family life in his childhood, he now demands a harmonious married life from Sonja, but based on conventional notions of what that would be. She seems to submit to his demand, but then she takes the examination to gain higher status in her profession without his knowledge. Jens feels betrayed and becomes violent. He regrets his actions and wants to prove himself. He starts a training course, which he is unable to handle. Out of despair, he begins to drink. Sonja works secretly. Panic stricken, she has an abortion. When Jens learns about it, he loses his self-control completely. At this point, Sonja only feels hatred for him. When Jens drinks from a bottle in which Sonja knows that there is some caustic detergent, she does not stop him. But Jens survives. Sonja cannot deal with her guilt and soon she openly admits her guilt to Jens. Tragedy will help both of them to mature and make a new start.

Does anybody know a US film about an american lad who messes with a girl who puts him into trouble in DDR? I only saw a small part of it but it was quite an anti-communist propaganda! Note that the main character was blonde (kind of) and when fleeing to west berlin went to eat and asked for "an american sandwich" and "american fries"!

I am a fan of DEFA's "Red Westerns" which are films that portray Indians as heroes against cowboys and European settlers. Apaches, Chingachgook and The Great Snake, and The Sons of Great Bear are all very entertaining and can be purchased online as a set called "Westerns With a Twist".

Yes . I am watching it right now for the second time trying to see what is pro-DDR about it. I'm at the scene where a peaceful protest is crushed by nazi-like Stasi forces who intentionally break someone's leg and beat many, leaving a fainted woman on the street, whose son is beaten when he tries to save her - followed by a mass imprisonment.

Besides that it may not be overtly anti-Communist but all art is political and as a capitalist produced piece is an innately hostile film. It is mildly self-critical of capitalism but only of the plasticity of consumer culture - no mention of the exploitation that it is based on. Fuehrer-Ex is more pro-DDR than Goodbye Lenin as it portrays the DDR as an anti-Nazi state and its scriptwriter is antifascist ex-Nazi Ingo Hasselbach.

I'm at the scene where a peaceful protest is crushed by nazi-like Stasi forces who intentionally break someone's leg and beat many, leaving a fainted woman on the street, whose son is beaten when he tries to save her - followed by a mass imprisonment.

The Stasi were hardly the Carebears were they? I've heard of many examples of such brutality. And it's not 'bourgeious propoganda', which is so easily labelled to anything (much the same way you calling me 'childlike' has conviently helped you not finish your debate with me in the past!).

Speak not of revolution until you are willing to eat rats to survive- The Last Poets

GOODBYE LENIN
isn't capitalist propaganda. It is a good movie showing how life really was in DDR. It shows that it really wasnt that bad. It was quite good! (Better than in the rotten west, which had beggars and unemployed people)

Good things shown in Goodye Lenin:
+The family owns a "datscha" (A garden outside the city with a house), even though they are no business people
+There are many activities for children and pioneers
+Exchange Students from other socialist countries come to study in Germany (e.g. Lara from USSR)
+Demonstrants were not shot, and those arrested were not tortured either, just stayed in a cell overnight.
+Nice parade
+Friendly people in DDR
+Ostalgie

-Consumerism in the west
-Destruction of socialist monuments after the change
-Death of the mother when her motherland becomes capitalist (and she lived when it was socialist)
-Chaos after the change (harmony during socialism, except for the part with the demonstration)
-The sister quits her university education and starts to work in burger king because of capitalism, since they need the money desperately. (If there was socialism, she would finish the studies)

When the red stars unite, the dawn of a new day comes. The red sun is rising and and the sacred ideal guides us to paradise on earth. Our socialist ideal is brighter than sun!

GOODBYE LENINisn't capitalist propaganda. It is a good movie showing how life really was in DDR. It shows that it really wasnt that bad. It was quite good! (Better than in the rotten west, which had beggars and unemployed people)

Yeah, I really thought that movie showed the east in a better light than the west. I really loved the piece at that end, I wish that would have happened in real life. I think I almost cried tears of joy when I saw it...I'm very emotional when it comes to socialism.

I don't see Goodbye Lenin as capitalist propeganda at all...
It really goes against the normal western viewpoint that the west is better in every way and says that both systems had their good points and bad.

"I'm not a fascist I'm a priest, fascists dress in black and tell people what to do while priests..."